Several businesses from day cares to grocery stores and hair salons closed Monday across the U.S. in a loosely organized day of protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
But participation in the “day without immigrants” faced headwinds from employees and business owners who said they need the income — especially as rumors of widespread raids, often false, are leaving many migrant communities afraid to venture outside, affecting even some schools. Monday’s event also came on the heels of street protests Sunday in California and elsewhere.
Noel Xavier, organizing director for the North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, said that while it’s important to remind the country of the value migrant workers bring to the communities they toil in, many workers couldn’t afford to take a day off.
“If I don’t go to work today, that’s one day less that I have, you know, to be able to pay for my next rent,” Xavier said of the prevailing sentiment among the workers he organizes. “I didn’t see this big rallying around being able to do that, or having the luxury to be able to do that.”
Jaime di Paulo, president of the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, noted that small restaurants and retailers in Chicago’s biggest Latino neighborhoods closed, but most major employers as well as those in construction and other industries were operating normally.